Harold John James Sparks was born on 24 May 1897. He attended the Rockhampton Christian Brothers school. He began study at the University of Queensland on 7 March 1925, although he did not receive his degree from this university. He was one of the first to donate and be recorded in the University of Queensland Book of Student Benefactors.

Dick Roughsey was born near Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1924. His name is translated from his tribal name Goobalathaldin, meaning 'water standing on end'. Brought up within the tribe, he was educated at a Presbyterian mission, subsequently returning to his people. Roughsey was assisted in his painting career through the encouragement of an Ansett pilot, Percy Trezise, and has successfully exhibited bark paintings and oils. Roughsey and Trezise collaborated for many years producing picture books which retold traditional stories. These were among the first to introduce Aboriginal culture to children. The stories include The Rainbow Serpent (1975), Banana Bird and the Snake Man (1980), about how the birds outwitted the snakes, The Magic Firesticks (1983) a legend from the Yalanji people and The Flying Fox Warriors (1985). Roughsey's richly illustrated autobiography Moon and Rainbow: the Autobiography of an Aboriginal was published in 1971. He was the first chairman of the Aboriginal Arts Board in 1973.

The Mapoon Mission commenced on 28 November 1891 on the traditional lands of the Tjungundji people. Initially called Batavia River Mission and founded by Moravian missionaries, James Gibson Ward and Reverend John Nicholas Hey, who were said to have brought several South Sea Islander men to Mapoon to assist them. Many children from the Gulf of Carpentaria region where forcibly removed to Mapoon when the mission became an Industrial School under the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act (1865) (Qld) in 1901. Outstations to the south of Mapoon were established in the early 1900s. The conditions at Mapoon were very poor during the management by the Presbyterian Church. On 1 January 2005 the Mapoon Aboriginal Council became the Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council.

The Aurukun Mission opened in 1904 and was run by the Presbyterian Church . It was situated south of Weipa in far north Queensland.

Mavis Thorpe Clark was born on 26 June 1909 in Melbourne, Victoria. Writer of primarily children's fiction. She died on 8 July 1999.

Elizabeth Magda MacFarlane, regarded as an author from the United Kingdome was a Ukrainian-born physician and author. She wrote under the pseudonym Madelaine Duke, Maxim Donne, Leslie Heron, and Alex Duncan.

Writer and producer.

Elizabeth Blewett was born as Elsie Melville Blewett in Northcote, Victoria. Known as 'Bill' to her family, she was educated at Ivanhoe Grammar School and the University of Melbourne. She pursued a career as teacher, served as a headmistress for thirteen years and was a co-principal of "Merry Days", a correspondence school for kindergarten and sub-primary school children which she ran with her sister Rowena. In 1951 she moved to London with her sister, the writer and literary agent, Dorothy Blewett before returning to Australia at the end of 1959. In 1978 she wrote a book called Care & Breeding of Australian Finches.

Ion L. Idriess contributed to the Bulletin's 'Aboriginalities' column and other journals under such pseudonyms as 'Gouger', 'Up North' and 'Emucrest' and had some success with earlier books such as his first, Madman's Island (1926); in 1931 he wrote his first best-seller, Lasseter's Last Ride, and Prospecting for Gold, a practical guide to gold mining. From this time until his last book appeared in 1969, he regularly published at least one book a year, providing tales of Australian adventure in a congenial and well-structured style. He also wrote several books for children about historical events in Australia. --excerpted from AustLit